Trauma Center New Blood: Third Player
by StefBP
Summary: Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock are two promising surgeons with the Healing Touch. They have great skill in surgery, but will they need help when the Stigma they face is more than they can handle? Self-insert in third person perspective. Constructive criticism is welcomed.


Trauma Center New Blood: Third Player

This… is basically a self-insert that I made as accurate as I can into the first operation which involves Stigma. In real life, I don't want to become a doctor, as my biology grades suck, but everyone can dream, can't they? This is my first oneshot, so if you have any constructive criticisms, go ahead and write them out. I'll be happy. For those of you who favorite this story, thank you! I might also be doing a full story of the whole game with my character as an addition. Please also remind me if the characters are too OOC. By doing so, I'll learn more about the characters.

Just for info, this is the operation on 2-4 subchapter Stigma. I made the Cheir OverPowered (OP) for more dramatic moments. The story has a third-person perspective.

Disclaimer:

Story & Stefan is owned by StefBP

Caduceus, Concordia, Montgomery Memorial, Markus, Valerie, Elena, Healing Touch, and all of the rest is owned by Atlus

"…So, I heard that Rousseau took credit for everything," Professor Wilkins said shortly after two exceptional surgeons, namely Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, explained the current condition to him.

Markus and Valerie were partners in the field of surgery, working together to face whatever surgeries were thrown at them, although the partnership stemmed from Valerie initially intending to learn a power that is believed to descend from the Greek god of healing, Asclepius, which is only available to a select few, including Markus, whose ability was to work at a faster speed than most surgeons, and led Valerie to follow Markus from Concordia Medical Institute - a hospital in Canada - to Montgomery Memorial Hospital. Unfortunately, after some time, the director of the hospital, Miles Hoover, decided to retire and close the place down, while sending Valerie and Markus back to Concordia Medical Institute. Despite the initial mishap between them, their bond as partners has increased, even more so with the presence of a nurse who Markus operated on several years ago and operated on again recently to replace a pancreatic pump unit, Elena Salazar. Elena herself was considered young for her age, but she demonstrated her will and intellect as by the age of 20, she had already gotten her International Nursing License.

"You must be disappointed," Wilkins continued as he flipped through a book while sitting on a chair in his laboratory. "I'm just glad the patient's okay," Markus shrugged as he comfortably sat and took a position on another chair. Wilkins quickly replied, "He's an excellent doctor, although shrewd at times. And I would never trust him to operate on me. That's why I summoned you here, Markus. You have a rare talent," Markus grimaced, as if he remembered a dark part of his past and said quietly, "I didn't want to come back," Wilkins, who did not pay attention at all to Markus's implicit objection, continued on by saying, "I'm aware of that. Regardless, we'll meet tomorrow to discuss my operation. The procedure is scheduled for four days from now. I'll leave you to choose your team. Also, there is someone else I'd like you to meet. The person I want you to meet is not a doctor who just completed his residency or anything similar, but I'll leave the rest of the details of this person to himself,"

Markus nodded. _And who is this person that I would have to meet? _He thought while walking out of the room. _I'd need to tell Valerie about it, since we basically do things together by now. I kind of wonder how she'll react to this. _He thought as he returned to his office.

Four days later…

"So, you're finally going to tell us, eh, Professor?" Luc Rousseau, head surgeon at Concordia, said while keeping his trademark facial expression, which consisted of a half-smile with his eyebrows furrowed which only served to make him look sleazy.

Wilkins replied, "I led you all to believe that I was suffering from a chronic heart disease. But now that my preparations are complete, I will reveal the true nature of my illness."

Valerie then cut in by asking, "Dr. Rousseau is on the team, too?" Markus quickly replied by saying, "Yeah, but he won't be operating,"  
>Wilkins continued his explanation by saying, What I'm asking you to do is treat an unknown illness. I'm asking you to face the unknown,"<p>

Rousseau, surprised, exclaimed, "An unknown disease?!" Wilkins answered, "By certain means, I received a mouse with an unprecedented illness. It was a pathogen born as a result of gene-related medical research. I isolated it, analyzed it, and became deeply interested in it, despite my initial fears. It was such a unique disease."

Markus quickly retorted, "Curiosity – Man's greatest weakness," Elena, confused by what Markus had recently said, felt the need to ask, "Dr. Vaughn?" Markus quickly replied with "Nothing. Never mind," as his eyes lost focus on what Wilkins was explaining quickly, reminiscing quietly.

After the explanation by Wilkins, Markus retreated to his office. Markus, in his office, sipping a cup of black coffee, pondered and concluded that "…Infected accidentally? That can't be… That's not its nature. The Professor's hiding something,"

Markus heard a knock, and shortly after, Wilkins enters Markus's office. "Forgoing your meditation today? Don't allow this disease to trouble you. Just accept the fact that it's beyond your comprehension. I know somehow that you will ask if I should be up at this time of day, but I'd like to ask of you another favor. If for some reason the operation is a failure, I want you to destroy all my research concerning Stigma. This is my research and mine alone, whether or not this operation is successful. You should have no objections to this. After all, wasn't it your wish three years ago that all this disappear? Also, the person I'd like you to meet will be here soon, as we start the conference for the operation. Well then, I bid you good luck." Wilkins quickly removed himself from Markus's office afterwards.

A fairly tall man who looked to be in his mid 20-s approached an elevator in Concordia and quickly rode up to the floor where he was supposed to go. "I hope I'm not too late. Ah, nope, I still have three minutes to walk there," he said as he looked into his watch while he entered an operation room. Finding it empty, he sighed while rubbing his head and saying, "How many times have I gotten lost here? Has it been four times?" and exited the room. After entering the right room, he was quickly greeted by Wilkins who was on a bed, and shortly after, Wilkins introduced him, "Dr. Vaughn and dr. Blaylock, this is dr. Stefan B. P. Since he has refused to divulge the rest of his name even when he was in university as an apprentice of mine, I'll call him just Stefan,"

Stefan continued, "Hello, dr. Vaughn, dr. Blaylock, and Elena. Mr. Wilkins gave me information about the three of you before I came here. As Wilkins stated previously, I am Stefan. I hail from Indonesia, and currently, I am working under Victor Niguel in the research division of Caduceus USA. Sometimes, I help out with minor surgeries in Caduceus Europe, so you could say that I have a bit of a hectic life. But it's nice to see new promising faces like yours. The one thing that separates me from you is that I have no Healing Touch at all, whereas both of you have one. I hope that somehow from this meeting, I will gain more skill as a surgeon, as I will also be helping out as backup in case the both of you fall lacking, although I doubt that you need my help at all. From this point on, I am to be a part of your team as well," as he smiled and shook hands with Markus and Valerie. Valerie then motioned for Elena to start debriefing regarding Wilkins' condition.

As Stefan took out his notepad and started drawing on his notepad, Markus looked to the side and whispered to Valerie, "Val, you sure this guy's any good? He's technically a researcher, not a surgeon. Also, look at him drawing in his notepad. You think he's paying attention?" Valerie shook her head and replied with "I don't know, but he's not paying attention," and turned to face Stefan and cleared her throat, told Elena to pause the briefing and said "Excuse me, dr. Stefan, I thought you were paying attention to the briefing, but why are you instead drawing stickmen on your notepad? I don't like people who do not take this job seriously," Markus was taken slightly aback by this, as he said, "Val, you don't have to go overboard with that…" Stefan sighed, as he quickly put his notepad back in his pocket and said, "You somewhat remind me of Nurse Angela Thompson. I'm sorry. It's not that I'm not taking my job seriously, but I actually do this to keep myself from sleeping. Even though I look like I'm not paying attention, I actually heard all that Elena said. Forgive me if I seemed to be lazy to you, dr. Blaylock. I'll try to suppress this habit from now on, then,"

Markus just shook his head, and whispered to Valerie, "Val, you went overboard. We'll talk about that later. But for now, let's just continue listening to the briefing from Elena," Valerie only huffed. After Elena's explanation finished and the team had decided that the most viable way to eliminate it would be by using the laser, Rousseau concluded, "If the Professor's research is accurate, then this data will make medical history. Mistakes cannot be made. I presume you understand that," and Markus replied with a simple "Relax, we've got it under control," and Valerie began the operation by saying "An unknown pathogen... That should be interesting."

"We're ready to begin the procedure. Based on what we know, we expect that Stigma will become active once we open up the Professor. Please be extremely careful!"

Markus and Valerie quickly made the opening incision and started to examine the field of the operation, which is the heart. Elena was surprised at seeing the lacerations, saying "But we didn't see any on the CAT scan!"

Valerie replied with, "Are you suggesting that the pathogen did this within the last few moments?"

Markus thought the question to be unimportant, and said, "We need to suture any wounds immediately, and try to prevent any further damage."

After treating the lacerations, the strain of Sigma known as Cheir appeared.

"There it is!" Elena observed.

"My god, look at it!" said a shocked Valerie.

Markus immediately responded with "All right, let's do this. Get the laser ready," and started to laser the Cheir.

The Cheir was quickly vanquished, with Elena saying "We did it! Stigma's gone!"

"Marvelous! The Professor will be-" Rousseau chimed in, but was cut by Markus who observed the still unstable vitals and said "Wait! He's not stabilizing... We better take another look!"

This time, the Cheir appeared again, only this time in two cells, instead of the previous one.

"Stigma again! But, how...?" said Elena, taken aback by the reappearance of the Cheir.

The Cheir started to create lacerations across the heart, horrifying Rousseau. "It's tearing up his insides! I can't believe this..." Unfortunately for Markus and Valerie, somehow they started to speed up their mobility and made more lacerations than they could handle. Markus and Valerie weren't able to keep up with the speed of the Cheir.

Stefan observed from afar, commenting "Hm, lacerations? This... Stigma reminds me all too well of Kyriaki and to a certain extent, Savato. I'd say this is somewhat like the Kyriaki. Hold on. Wilkins said this was made in his laboratory. That means this is a man-made virus. GUILT was too. I do not have a good feeling about this. I must pay more attention to this surgery,"

"We're not making much progress, Val. I hate to say this, but we have no other choice but to use them," Markus said quickly to Valerie as they continued to laser the two Cheir.

"I agree with you Markus, let's do this. Spirit of life, guide my hands!" Valerie said and tensed her left index finger and imagined star.

Markus promptly followed suit, saying, "Remain centered... Breathe... Focus... As the stars have taught me... Now, let's finish this." and started to work at a blinding speed to suture the chaos created by the bodies of Cheir. "Whoa, they did it. Hold on, it seems like Valerie's Healing Touch locks the vitals since the vitals should be decreasing very quickly due to the lacerations but in this case, it isn't. Amazing! Markus's is probably that of dr. Stiles's too, to enhance his concentration and his speed. Just look at the speed those hands are moving at!" Stefan observed while looking from behind a glass pane. Elena shook her head as she quickly handed the right tools for the doctors, and said "I don't think this is working out well for them. They're straining themselves too hard, Stefan," to which Stefan replied, "I'll get ready as soon as possible then, in case they fail," as he cleaned his hands and put on surgical apparel.

"Finally, it's done," Valerie said as she and Markus finished lasering the Cheir, even though exhaustion could be seen on her face, as she exerted herself and Markus from performing their respective Healing Touches. As soon as she finished her sentence, the two bodies of the first strain of Stigma Markus, Valerie, and Stefan saw who were thought to be eliminated fused and started going berserk with the lacerations, creating six at a time, and its heightened durability did not help at all.

Elena could only watch in horror as the Cheir ripped open the insides of the heart, laceration by laceration. "They fused together?!"

"Well it can't have changed that much! The laser should still work!" said Valerie, exhausted by the earlier expenditure on energy.

Markus and Valerie's fatigue from the use of the Healing Touch caught up with them, and they couldn't hold it in anymore.

Falling to the ground, Markus mumbled, "It's too much for me... Why did I ever..."

Valerie stood longer than Markus but eventually, she also couldn't keep up with the chaos and succumbed to the same exhaustion as Markus, muttering, "I'm sorry, Markus, Elena...".

Stefan clenched his teeth, saying "Move them out of the operating room, Elena. I'll handle this. You move out too,"

Elena was surprised to hear it, and she replied, "But what about you?! You can't operate alone! You need someone to assist you!"

Stefan sighed and said "Elena, my first few operations in Indonesia were without the help of a nurse. I believe I can do this one too. Also, your face is pale, and you look tired. Please let me do this alone. Now get out of my way!"

Elena, scared by the sudden change of tone in Stefan's voice, quickly removed herself and the two other surgeons out of the room with a few interns' help.

Stefan adjusted his position and Wilkins', and quickly started to operate by grabbing the suturing kit on his right hand and the laser on his left, and started working with both hands. Even as his hands flew everywhere, he couldn't keep up. The Cheir, now fused, did not cease and continued to lacerate the organs, and vitals dropped from 60 to 29 in a few moments.

"No, no, no, no, NO! NO!"

28.

Stefan had a fit of rage. He dropped the tools he was holding and slammed the operating table with his right hand,

27.

and then slammed the wall with his right hand again, creating a slight crack.

26.

His face changing expression to that of cold anger, he said quietly, "Annoying, every single one of you. Did you really think that you could destroy what I have? My self-esteem? My career? Everything I fought for?!"

25.

A black star began to form in front of his right hand, as he shouted, "The gates of death shall close!"

The black star shone and quickly disappeared, and as he looked at the field of operation, he found that there were no lacerations at all in the field, and that Wilkins' vitals had increased from 25 to 30.

"The hell just happened?! No time to think!" he said as he grabbed the laser he recently dropped onto the floor and quickly attempted to laser the Cheir again. After a short while, the Cheir finally gave in and disappeared.

Observing from afar, Rousseau muttered "That was truly a menacing organism. I must begin analyzing the data immediately!"

"Good. Now all I need to do is to stabilize his vitals, and bandage him… There. Operation complete, although I'll have to ask either Markus, Valerie, or Derek regarding that black star I saw earlier and why it immediately cured the lacerations of the Cheir. Other than that, I think that this is just the tip of the iceberg, like GUILT three years ago. I wonder why I had difficulty with this Stigma, while GUILT wasn't that taxing… There are two possibilities: my skills have rusted, or Stigma was just harder than GUILT."

He walked out of the room and ripped his latex gloves and threw the rest of his surgical apparel to the trash. He didn't really care about where to throw them, he just did.

Stefan walked to the break room where he grabbed a cup of warm earl grey tea. _This tea has rather harsh flavor_, he thought, _but life is like this, I guess_. He took a gulp of the tea, and when walking back to his and Markus's now joint office room saw Elena and walked up to her.

"Hey, Elena! I'm back!"

"Oh, dr. Stefan! I didn't see you there. How did the operation go? I was worried that you might have failed without any help there."

"It was a success, although you should probably tell the head nurse here to check for any property damage on Operating Room...3, I think. Make sure you tell him/her to check the walls, okay? Also, when I was operating, I experienced something rather strange."

"And what might that be?"  
>"When I was operating, I…couldn't keep up with the Cheir. I felt like I was inferior and that I couldn't do anything, so I ended up in a fit of rage. However, during that fit of rage, a black star appeared on my right hand and after that, all the lacerations caused by the Cheir disappeared. I suspect that I might have unlocked the Healing Touch, but this one is… different," said Stefan while he placed the fingers of his right hand on his chin.<p>

He then continued with, "By the way, where are dr. Vaughn and dr. Blaylock? Weren't they unconscious?"

Elena replied, "Oh, they were incapacitated for a short while, and they woke up just before I went here. You can go ahead and talk to them in the recovery ward,"

"Okay, thank you Elena. See you soon!" And with that, Stefan went to talk to Markus and Valerie. He found Markus and Valerie on two separate beds next to each other, and smirked.

He then walked up to them and started the conversation by putting on a sad face, one that he learned during his time at high school, in the Drama Club. It was very convincing, as Markus and Valerie immediately changed their expressions to shock when Stefan began with "Dr. Vaughn, dr. Blaylock. The operation… failed. I couldn't keep up. I'm… sorry."

"I can't believe it… Even with three doctors operating on him…" Valerie was trying hard to keep her tears back, although it was clear that her barrier was about to break soon.

Markus hung his head, and said "I never saw this coming… What was I doing?"

Stefan, taken aback by their reactions, promptly defused the sad mood by laughing and saying, "Guys! I'm lying! It was a success, really! Don't you see him on that bed over there?" while pointing to the bed that Wilkins was resting on.

Valerie after knowing that she was tricked, however, was mad, to the point where she grabbed the closest object to her and threw it at Stefan, all the while saying "How DARE you perceive this job as a joke!" and suddenly got the strength to stand and chase Stefan out of the recovery ward. Markus just sat on his bed, stunned, mouth slightly agape. Stefan, who didn't foresee the result, which was Valerie chasing him around the hospital, shouted "dr. Blaylock, stop, stop, stop, stop, seriously! STOP!" and held a hand to stop Valerie's onslaught through the hospital hallways.

After Valerie stopped, Stefan, after a short moment of panting for air, said "Dr. Blaylock, like I said earlier, the operation was a success, but I barely managed. You see, when I was operating, I… had a rough time with the Cheir who were fused. You and Markus were knocked out during that point in the operation, remember? Anyway, I… briefly got into a fit of rage, and I somehow conjured a black star on my right hand,"

"What?! But that means that you also have the Healing Touch, just like Markus and me! What was yours then?"

"I'm not so sure, but it seemed like all the lacerations were gone in an instant and the vitals rose just slightly. Yours was to lock the patient's vitals, right?"

"Yeah, my Healing Touch is to lock the patient's vitals. I've never heard of that kind of Healing Touch. Markus's is to enhance his speed, but I've never even heard of yours."

"Either way, let's get back to Markus and discuss about post-op stuff, okay, Val?" Stefan said while walking behind Valerie.

"Fine, but you're not calling me by my first name. I'm still angry about that deception of yours."

"Come on, Val, cheer up! You're about to see your potential boyfriend's face in a short while!"

"Who…Markus?! Our relationship is restricted to being partners, and nothing more!"

"Hey, I never said anything about Markus! …Oh I see. Ahahahahahahahaha! Got you, Val!"

"I can't believe this… Hey! Get back here!" said Valerie as she chased after Stefan once more.

...

Unbeknownst to them, Markus was at the other end of a hallway in the medical institute, just outside the recovery ward. He heard what sounded like Valerie shouting his name, and a few other things. "...me? Relationship... partners? What does it mean?"

He tried to listen to more of what those two were shouting at each other, but then decided to forget it, as he couldn't completely decipher what they said.

"I guess I'll ask them. There shouldn't be any harm in doing so, right?"

...

"Found you two. Were you two just on the other end of this hallway a bit earlier?", asked Markus, who just recently exited the recovery ward and was out to look for the two other surgeons who were chasing each other.

"Yep, we were! Markus, let me tell you something. Valerie's-" said Stefan, only to be shut up by Valerie, as she slammed her hand on his mouth.

"Sorry, Markus! Nothing happened, I assure you." said a desperate Valerie, desperate to get that annoying surgeon-and-researcher to shut his mouth to keep what she said from reaching Markus's ears.

"I... don't understand. What's going on? I overheard Valerie shouting something along the lines of me being strictly her partner or something. What did you say, Val?"

"N-nothing of the sort! It was nothing, I assure you! Really!" said an even more desperate Valerie who was now starting to blush slightly, since the person she was talking about earlier during the chase for that "dumb-twat" surgeon actually hit the nail on the head and even started to ask about it.

_Wait, she was blushing. Was that a fluke, or did that really happen?_ thought Markus, who was trying to wrap his head around the conundrum; the whole deal.

"The more you deny it, the more likely it is to happen, Valerie. I'll quit the attempt for now, but I'll continue this at a later time. Let's talk about how the operation went now, shall we?" said the person whose mouth was earlier slammed on by Valerie. _Now I know what's happening between those two. I'll need to do something about this, _He thought on.

"Finally. Well…I'm glad his body withstood the operation. At this rate, it seems he'll make a full recovery. Still, that was a daunting procedure." Valerie said while crossing her arms, still blushing.

"I can't believe that such a disease exists, and that we were able to treat it." Elena joined in the conversation.

"I hope this is the last we see of it, though." Markus said, observing Valerie. _Did she just blush? Really?_

Stefan cut in, "In your dreams, Markus. There was GUILT around ten ago, and there were seven strains of it. I'll explain about the details later, but I think that we'll be expecting around the same number of strains."

Rousseau chimed in by saying "I must say, this 'Stigma' certainly is an intriguing disease. Doctors around the world will be astonished."

Stefan had growing suspicions of Rousseau. _Where were you during the operation? Other than that, I suspect that he might be saving some data of that operation. I can't confirm it yet though._

"…Oh, he's awake," said Elena as Wilkins sat up on his bed.

"Yes, I'm fully conscious," said Wilkins while putting on a monocle on his left eye.

"Do you do everything with a monocle, dude?" Stefan complained, although Markus quickly shot back a glare to him, effectively shutting him up. Markus cleared his throat and began, "The operation was a success. All the pathogens were removed, and your heart is functioning normally."

"It was a complicated procedure, but we were able to complete it. Being operated on while you still had your strength should speed your recovery," continued Valerie as she, Markus, and Stefan stood around the professor.

"I heard that both of you became unconscious when operating on me. What happened?" Wilkins asked.

"Allow me to explain, dude… uh, Professor. The Stigma on your body, namely the Cheir, presented too much trouble on these two fine surgeons over here, but they managed to get through a phase in this operation with the help of their respective Healing Touches. After they were knocked out, I took over without Elena's help, and managed to finish the operation, although in the process, I unlocked my own Healing Touch," explained Stefan.

"You have your own Healing Touch? That's great. What was it?" asked Markus.

"Well, it came with a black star, and I think that it cures all lacerations and should do the same for tumors and the like. It also increased the vitals by around five. I should name your Healing Touches as well as mine, for the sake of coolness. Markus's will be named 'Speed Enhance', while Valerie's will be named 'Vital Lock', and mine will be named… 'Gate of Cancellation', since I just don't know what I should call it. You know what? Those names sound cool, don't you think, guys?" continued Stefan whilst chuckling.

"The respective names for each of the Healing Touches that you three have is irrelevant to the operation, Stefan. I know that you could easily deviate from a topic, but I didn't think you'd take it this far," Wilkins said, slightly crossed that Stefan easily changed a serious topic into something more humorous; it was slightly humorous for Stefan, but not the others as Markus, Valerie, and Elena shook their heads at his bedside manner.

"You know guys, I think I'll fit right in with you three…"

"Definitely not. You disgust me," said Valerie.

"I'll have to agree with Val on this one. You are… annoying," said Markus while nodding along with Valerie's statement.

"Oh come on! You two obviously need my help. That fused Cheir? I took it down, guys!"

"It doesn't change the fact that you are annoying, dr. Stefan," Markus sighed.

"First, no need to get all formal, just call me Stefan. Two, you'll need my help, and as long as you need my help, I'll be here for you guys. I might also need some help from you two as well. Isn't that right, my dear Professor Wilkins?"

"Hmph…" Wilkins sighed.

"Your personality during an operation contrasts highly with this personality, Stefan. You were so shy, but now that you're familiar with us, you've become very rambunctious. I'm worried about you," observed Elena.

"No worries Elena," said Stefan as he smirked a smirk similar to Markus's. _I'm definitely going to enjoy my stay here._

…

And thus begins Stefan's life with Markus, Valerie, and Elena, as a team in surgeries. Stefan would often lighten the mood when the other three felt low, and vice versa.

But honestly, I'll be writing a bit more content related to TC: NB.


End file.
